Kalah's Tower Stronghold Quests

[Wounded_Lion]

I am taking suggestions from players who have ideas for stronghold quests for Kalah's Tower (in the Better Business: Kalah component of Morrow Gate).

 

I am working on developing Kalah's Master as a sort of demi-god or ascended-undead-mage-thing. Any thoughts here?

 

The player might be able to serve Kalah's Master, too, and swap their current kit for a custom kit (for example, a Cleric character could swap his kit for a Priest of Whatever-I-Name-The-Master kit).

 

Another possibility that I am thinking about is a scenario involving the city guards or Cowled Wizards. At first, the city might be reluctant to let the tent be...

 

a.) Perhaps an encounter with a group of city guards or Cowled Wizards that enter the tent?

b.) Maybe the player could be asked to strike some sort of bargain with the city to let the tent be?

c.) How about a quest to enslave a powerful guardian(s) to protect the tent from city guards and Cowled Wizards?

 

Another possibility would be to send Giran (the boy outside the circus tent) into the tent to become a slave. He could join his mother and become a small spider. Reuniting them makes them happy servants (kind of twisted, eh?). Working together, they could produce something useful or perform some task for the player?

 

Suggestions, thoughts, ideas, etc. are veeery welcome. Keep in mind: This is an Evil stronghold; good characters cannot obtain Kalah's Tower as a stronghold.

 

- D

[yarpen]

I don't think it's a good idea. I always liked Kalah character - powerfull illusionist who want to revenge..

 

But idea of serving to demon prince or archidevil? It can be better. If you want I can write you something about them (from PnP materials)

[Wounded_Lion]

If the player doesn't interefere with Kalah's revenge, then I don't see any reason why Kalah and CHARNAME should have to be enemies. Quayle dies and everyone else becomes a slave if you strike a bargain with Kalah. Maybe CHARNAME sympathizes with Kalah.

 

Currently, I'm thinking that everything that was once illusion will begin to become reality (the Tower, Hannah being a spider, etc) as Kalah gains in power.

 

I'm working on a simple stronghold quest in which Kalah gives you a bindstone and tells you the location of Thaxll'ssillyia the Shadow Dragon. If the bindstone is in your possession when you bring the creature to 1/5 of its health, you can force the beast to abandon the Shade Lord and become your bridge guardian. It's not a complicated quest, but it is pretty cool... I think so, anyway. Thaxll'ssillyia should be a good deterrent to interference from the city guard, and the dragon looks awesome perched upon the bridge.

 

- D

[Gorilym]

I'm working on a simple stronghold quest in which Kalah gives you a bindstone and tells you the location of Thaxll'ssillyia the Shadow Dragon. If the bindstone is in your possession when you bring the creature to 1/5 of its health, you can force the beast to abandon the Shade Lord and become your bridge guardian. It's not a complicated quest, but it is pretty cool... I think so, anyway. Thaxll'ssillyia should be a good deterrent to interference from the city guard, and the dragon looks awesome perched upon the bridge.

 

OK, I'm now officially sold on this whole concept, that sounds spectacular. Whenever I get around to an 'evil run', I will be installing this.

[Wounded_Lion]

OK, I'm now officially sold on this whole concept, that sounds spectacular. Whenever I get around to an 'evil run', I will be installing this.

 

 

Thanks! I'm new to quest modding, so progress is slow. With a bit of luck, I'll actually have the component completely done before you want to make that evil run.

 

- D

[SixOfSpades]

Given the popularity of UB, it would be best to consider the changes it makes to Kalah et al. True, your mod could easily include a "Will conflict with 'Kalah and what he was Promised,'" warning, or even uninstall the UB component if it's already present, but it would be nicer if the two worked hand-in glove. So perhaps you might consider Jafir as the master (or at least occasional visitor) you and Kalah serve, instead of some demon lord.

 

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Aerie. How about throwing her in with the Pleasure Slave, to become an apprentice to the trade? And if Quayle is not killed (merely left as a Mustard Jelly), Aerie might even be commanded to serve the party; after she's been converted to Lawful Evil, of course. I've always been a bit annoyed by the fact that you can redeem Viconia and the ToB NPC, but not Aerie. Corrupting the naive, submissive waif would be far easier than changing either of those two. But an Evil Aerie would be an entirely separate component, of course.

[yarpen]

Now it sounds great

[Wounded_Lion]

All right, Six! Although our visions don't always mesh, I'm glad to have some input from you.

 

Given the popularity of UB, it would be best to consider the changes it makes to Kalah et al. True, your mod could easily include a "Will conflict with 'Kalah and what he was Promised,'" warning, or even uninstall the UB component if it's already present, but it would be nicer if the two worked hand-in glove. So perhaps you might consider Jafir as the master (or at least occasional visitor) you and Kalah serve, instead of some demon lord.

 

You're asking me to give up my undying hatred of UB? That might be tough... LOL

 

I'll consider the above. I'd need permission from Andyr (the component's author) to use Jafir. I'm undecided about the story behind Kalah's master/benefactor, so I'll consider your suggestion as a valid possibility.

 

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Aerie. How about throwing her in with the Pleasure Slave, to become an apprentice to the trade?

 

As it stands in MG Preview Release 0.4, you can borrow Aerie for the night once she becomes Kalah's slave. This has no game effect (it's just an Evil thing to do).

 

And if Quayle is not killed (merely left as a Mustard Jelly), Aerie might even be commanded to serve the party; after she's been converted to Lawful Evil, of course. I've always been a bit annoyed by the fact that you can redeem Viconia and the ToB NPC, but not Aerie. Corrupting the naive, submissive waif would be far easier than changing either of those two. But an Evil Aerie would be an entirely separate component, of course.

 

I posted some threads about this kind of thing a long while back. I've been thinking of incorporating it into Morrow Gate (the damn project just keeps growing), so it's good to know that someone else is having similiar thoughts.

 

I'll give these things a bit more thought when I finish the Tower guardian quest that I'm working on. Keep the ideas and suggestions coming in the meantime!

 

- D

[Wounded_Lion]

Good news: Except for a bit of tinkering (for example, experimenting with different values for the HPPercentLT trigger to make sure that it's not too easy to kill Thaxll'ssillyia by accident when trying to bind him), I have completed the tower guardian quest.

 

The party gains 22,000 XP for completion of the quest (gained when the party returns to the Tower and speaks with Kalah; this is the same amount of XP the party would have gained for slaying Thaxll'ssillyia). The party does not gain the 3,200 gold or the Shadow Dragon Scales that it would have gained for slaying Thaxll'ssillyia. Instead, Kalah has prepared a gift for CHARNAME: Shadowpact Armor +6 (similiar to Shadow Dragon Scale +6 but has +75% Resistance to Acid and +25 Hide in Shadows). Conceptually, the armor is a combination of the Shadow Dragon Scale +6 and the stealth enhancing armors such as The Night's Gift (I've always hated having to choose... ).

 

Sound good? When I finish up the tweaks to this quest, I'll start working on the others (after a short break; I could enjoy a few days without modding, I think... lol).

 

BTW, this quest will not be available until the next Preview Release. I'm not going to bother the Wizard with another update until I have a bit more meat ready for the next release.

 

- D

[Daeva]

As a serious comment, don't forget about the Chrom Faeyr scroll that you get for killing him, it is far more valuable than the dragon scales / money as it leads you to one of the most powerful weapons in the game (ToB included). Just include it so that you are given that as well as the armour, else you will discourage a lot of gamers from following the new quest.

[berelinde]

I don't know if this *has* to conflict with UB at all. If you can bear it, find out what material UB adds to the quest itself. I'm not talking about what happens when you get outside the tent. I don't think there's anything. Players would have the option whether to choose to kill Kalah (and continue with an UB compatible route) or side with Kalah (his service to a demonic master would not preclude a bit of help from Jaffir--that tent would be a lot to accomplish, even for an ogre mage equipped with a RHI).

 

I think you could have it both ways.

[Wounded_Lion]

As a serious comment, don't forget about the Chrom Faeyr scroll that you get for killing him, it is far more valuable than the dragon scales / money as it leads you to one of the most powerful weapons in the game (ToB included). Just include it so that you are given that as well as the armour, else you will discourage a lot of gamers from following the new quest.

 

Thanks, Daeva! I did forget about the Scroll. For some reason, the Scales and the Scroll are not attached to the creature file itself (in other words, if you create and kill the Shadow Dragon with the CLUA Console, the creature does not drop the items). The items must be created by script.

 

Now that you've reminded me of the Scroll, I'll work it into the quest somehow.

 

Oh, wow. I just had an awesome thought. How about this:

 

After you've bound Thaxll'ssyllia as tower guardian, the dragon mentions Carsomyr in casual conversation (if you talk to him). Long ago, a Paladin of the Order of the Radiant Heart dealt him a severe injury with that blade. Thaxll'ssyllia asks you to bring him the holy sword if you ever come to possess it.

 

When you bring him the weapon, Thaxll'ssyllia reveals his plan for revenge against his old enemy (now long dead). The dragon has found a spell by which to taint Carsomyr and allow an Evil man (or woman) to wield the blade. Guess what? That'd be you (the Evil player). In exchange for helping him enact his revenge, Thaxll'syllia gives you the Scroll of Crom Faeyr.

 

I love it. What do you all think?

 

And: Thanks for the reminder, Daeva! Not only did you allow me to fix an issue with the quest, you sparked a new quest. Rock on!

 

EDIT: I'm so excited! Long live Evil!

 

- D

[berelinde]

I think, Wounded Lion, that you and I play at opposite ends of the alignment spectrum.

 

No matter. There's room for everybody

 

But it does sound like incentive to try an evil PC, from time to time.

[SixOfSpades]

Personally, I don't like bringing Carsomyr into it--it sounds too much like trying to bring all worthwhile Evil ideas into one mod / stronghold, which makes just as much sense as trying to work all Good-aligned ideas into a single stronghold. Spread it out and give gamers more replayability incentive, and other modders more fodder.

 

Besides, Thax has a more obvious old foe: The very existence of the Shadow Dragon Wardstone proves that Amanator is still not completely destroyed, and even has enough influence to balk the effects of Shadow. Thax has heard of an ancient shrine to the dead god hidden where no one would ever think to look for it, buried far below the bowels of this very city. If the party can locate the temple and defile it, they would earn an interesting old scroll as a reward. (Problem: Thax has no way of knowing that the party is interested in having CFaeyr froged, or even of the existence of any of the other pieces, which, as far as Thax knows, lowers the value of the Scroll from a necessary component to a mere curio.)

 

The Shadowpact armor sounds good, but when two items are combined into one, they shouldn't be a perfect amalgam of both items put together, at least not without a significant expenditure of gold/additional ingredients. There should be at least some concession to the law of diminishing returns.

 

And one last nitpick: I'm pretty sure Thax is coded as a Female.

[Wounded_Lion]

Personally, I don't like bringing Carsomyr into it--it sounds too much like trying to bring all worthwhile Evil ideas into one mod / stronghold, which makes just as much sense as trying to work all Good-aligned ideas into a single stronghold. Spread it out and give gamers more replayability incentive, and other modders more fodder.

 

I have to disagree with you, Six. There simply aren't enough quality "Evil-mods" available (show me three such mods and I'd be impressed). I do in fact want to bring several of the more worthwhile Evil concepts that I'm familiar with together under one mod. And I couldn't care less about leaving things for other modders to do.

 

Also, who else is working on Evil-mods anyway? No one that I know of...

 

Personally, my goal is to be able play a Morrow-Gate-modded game as an Evil protagonist and be able to do all the things I've ever wanted to do.

 

Besides, Thax has a more obvious old foe: The very existence of the Shadow Dragon Wardstone proves that Amanator is still not completely destroyed, and even has enough influence to balk the effects of Shadow. Thax has heard of an ancient shrine to the dead god hidden where no one would ever think to look for it, buried far below the bowels of this very city. If the party can locate the temple and defile it, they would earn an interesting old scroll as a reward.

 

Hmm. Good stuff. Rivalry with Amanator is an interesting concept. I like it. Let me think some more on this idea.

 

(Problem: Thax has no way of knowing that the party is interested in having CFaeyr froged, or even of the existence of any of the other pieces, which, as far as Thax knows, lowers the value of the Scroll from a necessary component to a mere curio.)

 

Doesn't the Scroll tell of the other pieces? Thax doesn't have them or know where they are, but he could assume that they exist somewhere on Faerun, right?

 

The Shadowpact armor sounds good, but when two items are combined into one, they shouldn't be a perfect amalgam of both items put together, at least not without a significant expenditure of gold/additional ingredients. There should be at least some concession to the law of diminishing returns.

 

Yeah, I know. But I couldn't resist.

 

And one last nitpick: I'm pretty sure Thax is coded as a Female.

 

I'm pretty sure that Thax is a male (in my current install, at least, the gender is set to male). The only dialogue present in an unmodded game doesn't render any clarity in this matter (how dare you wake me... kill you... eat you... yeah, yeah, yeah).

 

Thanks for the input! You've given me some things to think on. Very interesting things. I appreciate it.

 

- D